


Renascent - Kort Version

by cutsycat



Series: Dictionary.Com Word of the Day Drabbles [1206]
Category: NCIS
Genre: Crack, Gen, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-01-13
Updated: 2019-01-13
Packaged: 2019-10-09 13:50:21
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 5
Words: 9,167
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17408075
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/cutsycat/pseuds/cutsycat
Summary: What if Kort was just a cover? What if Kort didn't actually die when his cover did? What if Kort's family history was as sucky as Tony's? What if the CIA was out to get Kort?





	1. The Cover

**Author's Note:**

  * For [cutsycat](https://archiveofourown.org/users/cutsycat/gifts).



> Another dictionary.com word of the day drabble. This time from 08/19/2002 for the word [renascent](http://www.dictionary.com/wordoftheday/2002/08/19/renascent).
> 
> renascent  
> being reborn; springing again into being or vigor: a renascent interest in Henry James.
> 
> This is for the [Happy Holiday Challenge](https://ncis-https://ncis-discuss.livejournal.com/155018.html): Holiday Wishes 2018. Particularly Holiday Wish #4.
> 
> P.S. I have no explanation for this beyond my muse is weird sometimes. Hope you enjoy.

Travis stepped out into the cold night air. Some would call him a renascent spy. In fact, most of the MCRT knew him as Trent Kort.

That wasn’t his real name, of course. Trent had served his purpose and had died when his CIA cover was discovered to have sold secrets to Russia in 2002. Of course, he hadn’t actually sold secrets to Russia. 

That was just the cover the CIA had made for the Trent Kort persona. Now, he was Travis, Travis Dennis. Travis was another CIA role, of course. 

It would take some time for him to get used to introducing himself as Travis. He’d been Trent for so long that it would be hard not to introduce himself as Trent. He would manage, of course.

He always did. He had managed when he went from Patrick to Trent. He would manage Trent to Travis. 

He had a new mission now. One that hopefully wouldn’t involve any pesky NCIS agents that might actually recognize him. One that definitely involved Christmas.

He wasn’t sure he was on board with this whole Christmas mission. People got weird and a touch more unpredictable around Christmas. Still he was a good CIA agent and would do his best to complete the mission.

Why Travis had an undercover job of being a mall Santa was beyond Kort though. It was a great way to blend in around Christmas time, but you also stood out for the same reason. He was still in DC, so any NCIS agent could stumble across him in their off time.

Sure, he looked different, but some of the agents were good and would recognize him anyway. Or they would if they actually got a good look at him. Still it was a great cover for passing information back and forth. 

Everyone wanted to sit on Santa’s lap. Kort frowned at the thought of kids being involved for passing information. He hadn’t had a great childhood, but purposefully ruining Christmas for kids still bothered him.

That’s when Kort realized that something was up in the planning of this mission. Special Agent Bishop had just joined the end of the line with two adorable children. Bishop didn’t have any children and Travis couldn’t help feeling like this was a setup.

Was Bishop here in her role as NSA or as a NCIS agent? It could be either. Even though she’d become a full time NCIS agent, you never actually left the NSA. 

What did Bishop have to do with his mission? Where did the children come from? Travis had more questions than answers.

He would find out eventually, though, as the line moved and Bishop and the children drew ever nearer. His assignment claimed that he was to pick up clandestine info from a number of CIA informants of varying nationality. Travis couldn’t help wondering though if the CIA were trying to burn him for some reason as he was definitely a very visible target as the main Santa in the mall. 

Only time would tell, however, and it would all depend on how Bishop and the children acted once they got to the front of the line and it was their turn to sit on his lap. He thought he was prepared for every scenario, but he wasn’t prepared for Bishop to step up to him and give him a kiss on both cheeks. He’d never considered a relationship with her.

Why was she kissing him on the cheeks? He hoped she didn’t want a relationship with him. It was too dangerous for him to do more than one night stands given the CIA could terminate his cover at any time and give him a new one. 

“Ew. Mommy kissed Santa Claus.”

“Mommy?” Travis mouthed to Bishop.

Bishop shrugged in response and directed her children to sit on Santa’s lap and tell him what they wanted. As the children babbled about spaceships, aliens, and various other children toys that they wanted, Bishop used hand signals to warn Kort that he was in danger. Travis didn’t understand why she was doing this. 

Hadn’t he made enemies out of NCIS by supposedly selling secrets to Russia? When Travis proposed this question via hand signals, Bishop’s response was a smile and a word, McGee. What did the NCIS geek have to do with this? 

Bishop gave him information on a spot to meet after his shift for further discussion. Travis had to admit he didn’t know if he trusted her enough to actually show up for the meet. On the other hand, if she’d wanted him dead he would already be dead.

He was too curious about what was going on and had to at least check out the meeting spot after his shift as Santa was over. He still wondered why a CIA agent was using Santa as a cover in the middle of DC. The place Bishop had suggested was isolated, which would be good for a secret meeting, but bad if they were trying to kill him. 

He still had a few hours before the meet, so he went back to his place and turned his laptop on with the intent of trying to figure out if the CIA was out to get him or if this was a NCIS trap of some sort. Instead, he found an email from McGee with coded information on how to access a secure server.

He checked out the server to make sure that it wasn’t a trap before logging in. He stared in shock at the information he found on that server. Messages from every member of the MCRT team including DiNozzo and Gibbs. 

There was also a ton of information. Travis couldn’t help being impressed. They’d managed to uncover the CIA portfolio for Trent Kort and realize that it was just a cover. They’d even dug up some information on his real identity, though they hadn't yet linked that identity to his Trent Kort cover.

The one he’d almost forgotten he had as the last time he’d gone by that name was a good thirty years ago. Then there was the information on his new identity. Far more information than he had about his new identity.

Travis pulled open a couple of the messages from the team and was surprised to find that they were friendly or at least professional. Why did none of these people hold grudges against him?

Now, Travis knew he had to make the meet. If this was the kind of information they could give him online who knew what information they would be able to provide in person. He needed to know. 

He may have dedicated his life to the CIA, but he still looked out for himself first and foremost. He wasn’t just going to be a CIA patsy who would sit and play Santa like a good target. Travis glanced at his watch and realized it was almost time for the meet. 

Being careful to make sure he wasn’t followed or tracked even by the CIA, Travis arrived back at the meeting place. Bishop was waiting for him as was McGee. Travis glanced around to see if there were any other surprises.

“It’s just us.” McGee assured.

“What’s going on?”

“That’s what we want to know. The firefight, your death, your supposed dismissal from the CIA, it all seemed too pat. So I did some digging and Ducky managed to get a hold of the body and discovered it’s DNA didn’t match yours.”

“So you discovered that it had all been a CIA op and that I was still alive. Why contact me now? Aren’t I still a worm in your eyes?”

“You’re definitely slimy, but you have to be for your job.”

“Is this some sort of weird love-in? What’s with all the compliments?”

Bishop snorted. “I told you he wasn’t the kind of guy to play nice, McGee.”

Travis turned to McGee and raised an eyebrow. ‘What’s really going on?”

“Look. You’re a bastard and slimy, but you’re not a bad guy. When we uncovered information that made it appear that the CIA was planning to have you assassinated to get rid of you for good, we had to warn you.”

“So you just decided to go out on a limb for someone you hardly know and don’t trust?”

“Tony vouched for you. Gibbs vouched for you. When I dug into your past I realized you really weren’t as bad as you made yourself out to be. Most of the dirt in your profiles is CIA planted or things you had to do to keep your cover intact.”

Travis started laughing. “I’m not a good guy, kiddies. I’ve killed enough people to know that.”

McGee glared. “We’re trying to help you.”

“Thanks, but I don’t need your help.”

McGee walked up to Kort, who stood his ground, but eyed McGee with suspicion. Next thing Travis knew he was being kissed on the lips. McGee was a surprisingly good kisser too, however, Travis pulled back relatively quickly. “Are you saying you have a crush on me?”

“That too.” McGee smirked and stepped back.

Travis narrowed his eyes. “What else did you do?” 

“Just ensured a little security.’

Travis frowned. That sounded ominous. He hadn’t felt anyone else touch him when McGee had kissed him, but he’d definitely been taken by surprise. It was entirely possible that they’d managed to place a tracker on him or something. “To what purpose?”

“You’ll find out.” McGee winked.

This wasn’t normal behavior for the geek. He was normally shy and nervous not the self confident man that stood in front of him. What had happened to change him this much?

“Is that all?” Travis felt the absurd need to get away. These two agents didn’t pose a threat to him, but his fight or flight instinct was kicking in and he’d learned never to ignore it. 

“Oh and this.” Bishop handed Kort a secured envelope.

Travis nodded, accepting the envelope, and heading for the door closest to him. None too soon as a loud explosion was heard. Bishop and McGee glanced around and hightailed it for an exit as well. 

Travis didn’t know whether the explosion was meant for him or the NCIS agents, but he wasn’t going to stay around to find out, either. He headed for his current apartment, but didn’t go straight there. He didn’t want to lead anyone to it even if he had many other boltholes he could use if that one became compromised.

No use in being foolish and exposing himself to unnecessary risk. He needed to get home and start digging into what was really going on. Was the CIA really selling him out? 

Was that just part of the cover for Travis Dennis and they had a new role in mind for him? Was he getting dragged into an NCIS scheme of some sort? What the hell was up with McGee?

Last Travis knew McGee had been dating Delilah. How did he jump from Delilah to kissing him? Or had the kiss really just been a diversion to place whatever security McGee had hinted at.

Before he went to his apartment, he needed to check for trackers. If McGee had placed one on him then Travis needed to know who could use it to track him and possibly get rid of the tracker. He had some safety measures at his apartment for trackers, but he still had to be careful and not foolish.

Picking up one of his bags of toys that he had hidden throughout the city, Travis pulled out a tracker finder and quickly ran it over his body. It didn’t pick up anything. Travis frowned. 

Had McGee been lying about the security? Had it been a bluff? Or was it not a normal tracker that had been planted?

Travis sifted through the bag that had actually been placed when he was going by Trent Kort. He knew he had put the tech that he wasn’t supposed to have in here somewhere. Aha!

He pulled out the long pistol shaped thing which always made him feel like he was shooting himself when he used it. There were no bullets in it. It just used a beam kind of like x-ray technology to scan whatever area it was pointed out. 

He’d discovered it during a black op many years previous and had palmed two of them with no one any the wiser. He disliked using it as he didn’t understand how it worked, but desperate times called for desperate measures. This one was able to notice the tiny tracker that McGee had somehow slipped inside him.

Travis couldn’t help being impressed. He would never have expected McGee to have the guts to kiss him to deliver a tracker. The tracker wasn’t in his mouth, but Travis assumed that’s how it had originally been implanted. 

It had slipped into his bloodstream by now, though. The thing was tiny and very hard to detect. It would also be difficult to remove, so Travis wasn’t about to try. It wasn’t standard government issue.

Travis was pretty sure that it was something that the NCIS lab rat, Abby, had cooked up. Chances were the only people who could track it would be the MCRT. Travis hoped he wasn’t making a mistake, but he’d worked with Gibbs before and while the guy was a bastard he wasn’t anyone’s pawn.

Nor was he the kind of guy that would just screw over someone for no reason. Travis put everything back in the bag and found a new hiding place for it. He continued on to his apartment and immediately started using his contacts to try to find out the truth of what NCIS had told him.


	2. The Rebirth of Garrett

He opened the envelope and discovered even more proof of what the CIA was doing. It still didn’t explain why NCIS was helping him, but it definitely made him more leery of his superiors. He’d never fully trusted them anyway, which is why he had multiple boltholes that no one knew about, but he’d also not expected them to set him up to be assassinated by making him sit in the same chair every day with a big giant red suit of a target on him.

Though, he wasn’t sure why the CIA wanted a Santa shooting to make the news either. He’d long ago given up on understanding his superiors, however. He just needed to make sure they didn’t screw him over.

As information started to come back to him, he started to realize that NCIS was right. The CIA really was trying to get rid of him. He didn’t understand why they’d gone to the trouble of giving him a new cover if they just wanted to fire him.

They could have just killed him off as Trent Kort if all they’d wanted was him gone. No. He knew there was more to this situation that he hadn’t figured out, yet. 

He had another Santa gig tomorrow. It wouldn’t be the first time he’d gone into a job with no sleep the night before. At least, this one mostly wouldn’t have people shooting at him.

Still, he decided to poke the server McGee had setup and see what other information they had there about him. He read through all the messages and couldn’t understand the warm feeling suffusing his body. It almost sounded like they cared about him. 

That whole concept was completely foreign to him. The only one who had ever cared about him was himself. His superiors didn’t.

Heck even his parents hadn’t cared about him. He’d been on his own from the bright age of 14. The CIA had snapped him up quickly when he started showing an aptitude for undercover and spy work. Still it had become obvious from his first few missions that the only one who cared if he lived or died was himself. 

No one else in the CIA would even mourn him. CIA agents were trained to be detached and unless you regularly worked with a partner, which Travis never had, relationships stayed detached and professional between agents. The letters from the NCIS agents, though, weren’t detached they were almost friendly.

It was like they considered him one of them even though they’d been on opposite sides more frequently than not. He didn’t understand it. Was this all just because McGee had a crush on him?

Did McGee have a crush on him? Or was that just a ruse to plant a tracker on him? He couldn’t imagine DiNozzo and Gibbs going along with a plan just because someone had a crush on him, but he wouldn’t have expected them to be actively trying to save him either.

What the hell was going on? He’d blown up one of DiNozzo’s cars. The guy should hate him.

Yet, the letter Tony had written had no sign of hatred. He spent the rest of the night trying to figure out what the MCRT was up to. 

Finally, he decided to respond to the letters before heading into work as Santa. He would see how the MCRT responded to his replies before making any final decisions. Travis was more wary as he played Santa today. 

Not that he’d been completely relaxed yesterday, but there was a difference between normal level of alertness and known threat level of alertness. Now, any unexpected move was treated with suspicion. However, he knew it was more likely that he would be taken out with a sniper rifle than with anything that would be close enough to him for him to notice. 

Still it would be even more suspicious if he didn’t show up for work. He had a brief lunch break, which McGee mysteriously appeared for. The guy had brought an amazing pasta dish and Travis hadn’t had the heart to chase him away even though he probably should since the guy had planted a tracking device on him.

When he put the Santa suit back on, he discovered that a note had been slipped into one of the inside pockets. On it, there was a single name, Jim Brisco. Travis frowned as he read the name, but he didn’t have time to ponder it right then.

He needed to get back out for his job as Santa. He mulled the name over in his head as he listened to children’s wishes for Santa for the rest of the day. He recognized the name.

A traitor that Trent had thought put away for good, but Brisco had made no end of trouble for the CIA. Was Brisco still running things from behind the scene somehow? Or had Brisco escaped?

Travis didn’t know what the note meant. He hoped that there was something on the secure server that would explain it. However, he sent off a quick text to one of his black market contacts.

He didn’t want to rely solely on the MCRT. They were making it really easy for him to do so, but that always made him leery of a trap. Still if Brisco was at the bottom of this, his contact would be able to tell him what was going on.

He still didn’t understand why the MCRT was being so helpful. It wasn’t their normal modus operandi, for sure. Travis’ only experience with people being this helpful was when they were trying to lull him into a false sense of security and setting him up for a trap. That wasn’t the kind of thing he was used to from the MCRT, but he couldn’t help being wary nonetheless as that was the only experience he had. 

He’d learned he could only trust himself. He knew people helped others when they wanted something from the other person as well, usually sex or money. Travis had yet to figure out what the MCRT wanted from him. It was possible McGee did want sex from him, but if that was the case, the guy was going about it in a very odd manner. 

Helping him out, bringing him lunch, this isn’t what you did to get a one night stand. Travis was completely mystified as to what was going on. He also didn’t understand why the rest of the MCRT would be helping McGee if the goal was sex. 

Did they want an orgy? He could see that of the playboy DiNozzo pretended to be, but not of any of the others and not of the DiNozzo he’d seen hiding beneath the surface on many occasions. The behavior of giving him access to a secure shared server and visiting him really struck him as strange.

He returned home after finishing his Santa duties and opened up the server to see the messages the team had left after his semi-pointed letters in response. No one took offense to his questions. No one even got frustrated. 

Travis didn’t know what to make of this. In fact, Travis was beginning to wonder who he was. Was he Travis Dennis or Trent Kort or Patrick Vane? 

None of those were the names he was born with. It had been so long since he identified as his birth name that he didn’t even know if his base personality existed anymore. He had a slew of identities and properties and cash and various other necessities under all of his aliases.

Not a single one of those identities was his birth name. He’d done his best to eradicate the existence of the name he’d originally been born with. Now, he couldn’t help wondering if that was a mistake.

Garrett Baldwin wasn’t a bad name. He just hated it because it reminded him of his jerk of a father who had kicked him out of the house at 14. He hadn’t wanted his father to be able to claim any of his success. 

As he read the information on the server about Brisco, his eyes grew wide. Travis, Trent, Garrett whatever he called himself was shocked by the amount of detail that the MCRT was able to find about this man. They weren’t better than him per se, but they had definitely found out more than he expected.

He was starting to realize that Brisco had been trying to shape him for practically his whole life and he'd been completely unaware of it. Apparently, Garrett had caught the eyes of Brisco early on. He still didn’t know exactly what he’d done, but there was evidence that Brisco had paid his parents to kick him out. 

It was causing him to rethink himself and his entire life. He still didn’t want to honor his father, but he could feel the parts of him that were Garrett rising up again. Maybe Garrett needed to live again.


	3. The Plotting

The MCRT knew him mostly as Kort. Perhaps he should become Garrett Kort. He would have to terminate his employment with the CIA and vanish.

After all, the CIA continued to fund the traitor Brisco despite everything he’d done. It appeared that Brisco was in deep with Latham and the upper echelon of the CIA. It would take a significant amount of effort to bring them all down and he couldn’t do it while he had to watch his back every second.

He had a very big decision to make. Could he trust the MCRT? He wouldn’t know that until he knew how they came by this information and how it related to them.

Garrett didn’t believe in coincidences. He knew Gibbs had a rule about that as well. Something had happened to bring the MCRT to dig deeper into his background and to decide to help him.

Nothing so far from the MCRT told him what had started things for them. He couldn’t imagine spending another day pretending to be Santa for the kids. His world was spinning and he needed to find solid ground.

He sent a message to the whole MCRT demanding a meeting of all of them. He specified a meeting place that he had used before. It was close to one of his caches just in case things escalated, but was still out of the way and private.

He had messaged a time four hours from now to give them a chance to read the message and show up. Now, he was going through all the information on the server again. He was also reading through the information in the envelope they gave him originally. 

He hadn’t forgotten about his informants. He reached out to even more of them and scheduled a couple of meets before the MCRT meeting. He needed to know exactly what he was walking into. 

He only had 10 minutes to the meet time, but he finally felt like he knew what the MCRT was after. Now, to see if they would admit it or if they would lie to his face. This meeting would determine whether Kort would work with the MCRT or on his own.

Either way Brisco, Latham, and the haut monde of the CIA would pay. Kort would make sure of it. He entered the agreed upon meeting place and hoped that the full MCRT was there.

Gibbs growled. “What’s the meaning of this, Kort?”

“That’s what I want to know.” Kort leaned against the wall beside the door and eyed all four of the MCRT agents. “Did you think I wouldn’t find out?”

McGee shot Kort a confused look. “Find out about what?”

“About your interest in Brisco.”

“Are you slipping, Kort? I expected you to figure that out after the first meeting with McGee and Bishop.” Tony teased.

Kort glared at Tony. He didn’t want to admit that McGee’s kiss had thrown him off his game a bit. ”What is your endgame, here?”

“We want the same thing you do, Kort. The corruption brought to an end.” McGee pointed out.

“And how do I fit in?”

“Brisco is after you.” Gibbs grunted.

“So?”

“You’re our way in to take them all down. Let us work with you, so that we can take them all down for good, the right way.” McGee wheedled.

“Like you did Brisco the first time?”

“Hey, we got him.” Tony protested. “He’s just a slimy snake that even behind bars controls too much.”

McGee glanced between Tony and Kort as they argued. “Remember we’re on the same side, guys.”

“Not yet, we aren’t.,” Tony exchanged glances with Kort, “or have you come to a decision, Kort?”

Kort eyed all four agents. “My name is Garrett.”

McGee snapped his fingers. “So that’s why Brisco is after you.”

“Yep.”

“You know more of Brisco’s secrets than anyone else, don’t you?”

Kort shrugged. 

”What’s your plan to get out without Brisco getting rid of you?”

“Terminate my employment with the CIA and start a new life.”

“That easy?”

Kort shrugged. “I do it all the time for my job. It’s not that hard.”

“That’s so sad.” McGee frowned, staring at Kort with a sorrowful expression.

Kort frowned and shot McGee a confused look.

“That won’t work.” Gibbs pointed out. “We need Brisco coming after you to take everyone down.”

“What do you suggest?” Kort folded his arms over his chest. 

“Keep going to the mall. Let us work the case. We’ll find the proof to tie it back to Brisco and the others.”

“No. We work together. I won’t accept anything less.”

Gibbs growled. “Fine.”

”I have many contacts and other ways to get information that you aren’t even aware of.”

“I already said, fine.” Gibbs snarled.

“Brisco has to think you know something that could damage him and given he’s already in jail, it would have to be something pretty significant,” Tony mused.

“He recently killed my father. Maybe it was a secret my father knew. I’ll see what I can find out.”

“Great,” McGee agreed, “I’ll continue to be liaison between you and the team.”

“So what? You’re going to pretend we’re dating?”

“Pretty much,” McGee acknowledged. 

“It doesn’t have to be pretend, though,” McGee tossed over his shoulder as he left with the rest of the MCRT. Everyone still had work tomorrow, after all.

Kort stared after them in shock. Well that answered one question, but gave him a whole slew of other questions. He kind of knew why the MCRT was interested in Brisco, but he didn’t know what the CIA was up to.

There was more to this than Brisco wanting him terminated. Something else had to be going on for the whole ruling body of the CIA to go along with it. Brisco literally did not have that much power.

Still, he better try to get some sleep tonight, since he’d agreed to go to work as Santa tomorrow. By the time morning rolled around, he was no closer to figuring out what the CIA was really up to. Brisco’s desires were almost too obvious.

He knew he needed to dig even deeper into Brisco. Chances were there was someone controlling him behind the scenes. Shooting off some coded messages to figure out where he needed to start his digging, he headed to the mall to play Santa again.

He still wanted to know what McGee was up to and what had caused the change in him from the shy nerdy guy that Kort had run into before. He wondered if McGee would really show up for lunch every day. They’d have to be careful about that.

Anyone targeting him might decide to take advantage of them doing lunch together to take them both out or even just Kort. They would have to keep an eye out if McGee was planning to show up for lunch every day. They should probably vary it some and do some dinners instead of lunches.

Maybe they could even vary it more than that somehow. When McGee showed up, that was one of the first things Kort brought up. He wanted to get it out of the way before they moved onto more mundane topics that people dating would be more likely to discuss.

McGee suggested some obvious dates like the lunches and McGee picking him up after work and some less obvious meetups at bars or group dates at diners. They would exchange coded text messages to determine which they would do each day in an attempt to make them less predictable and harder to catch unawares. That discussion ended up taking up Kort’s full lunch break much to his frustration.

He had hoped to find out if McGee was really interested in him or if this was essentially an undercover operation for the guy. He’d be seeing a lot more of the guy while they worked to take down Brisco and the CIA, so it wasn’t the end of the world, but he’d really wanted to get a start on that conversation. By the time he went home for the night, he’d started to get some information back from his contacts and a picture was starting to form for him.

Getting information that his father might have had was more difficult than it should be since everything had been left to his mother and he’d been on even worse terms with her than with his father. He was actually surprised that Brisco hadn’t killed his mother as well. Perhaps there was a reason for that.

Kort would have to check into that as well. He would have to make a plan to find out anything his father might know. As per usual, the CIA was playing a dangerous game. 

They never made a decision that was simple and only affected one thing. Kort was starting to piece together the bigger pieces of the plan as he realized that this was a play to make the FBI look stupid and incapable of preventing terrorism. His death as Santa would be made to look like a huge terrorist attack and like the FBI fell on their faces. 

The hope was that the attack could be spun to make the CIA look more competent and thus get a bigger budget by taking some of the FBI’s budget during the new year budget that congress was working on. Kort thought it was a long shot, but that wasn’t the only plan they had. They really did have some informants and need a way to pass information, which meant that Travis was probably safe until the information had been passed.

Though, it would depend on whether they had any other agents that could easily take up the Santa role and then he couldn’t count on them waiting until they’d received the information before trying for an assassination. As he dug deeper into the connection between his mother and the CIA, he realized that she was actually a CIA agent herself. One that had made it into the elite and also had a relationship with Brisco that allowed her to control him from behind the scenes.

Kort shuddered. He didn’t understand how she could want to be in a relationship with that man. Though, actually, now that he thought about it, his mother was probably the missing piece NCIS needed to nail Brisco and the rest of the CIA upper crust.

Shooting off a quick email to McGee via the secure server with the information he’d found and everything he knew about his mother, Kort decided it was time to catch a few zs. He still had to play Santa in the morning, even though he’d yet to actually be passed any useful information as far as he could tell. He still had to make a daily report to his CIA contact with everything he’d heard that day just in case he missed something.

It was extremely annoying. He couldn’t wait to be done with this assignment and done with the CIA. While some of the missions were extremely exciting and full of danger, a lot of them were actually really boring if you were even halfway decent as a spy.


	4. Trouble Lurks Behind Even Familial Faces

When he woke up, he found a cryptic text from McGee awaiting him on his phone. It seemed to indicate that they should meet at a bar. He had no idea which one. 

Oh well, that would be a problem for after his Santa stint. Maybe he should call McGee after he finished and verify which bar. On the other hand, he really felt like a specific bar.

It wasn’t a well known bar, catering only to a specific niche crowd. However, Kort liked it for the waiters tendency to leave you alone so you didn’t have to worry about them showing up in the middle of your conversation unless you actually ordered something. On top of that, the alcohol was a touch above your normal bars, but they didn’t charge you through the roof for it.

Kort sent off a coded message that he hoped McGee would be able to translate to the bar he wanted to go to and headed into work. The mall and the constant Christmas lyrics were starting to grate on him already. He almost wished for an assassination attempt just to give him something else to do and an excuse to escape the mall and avoid the constant Christmas music.

When he took his lunch break, he saw that McGee had sent him a confirmation text. So he assumed that meant that McGee had successfully translated the message. That afternoon he overheard an interesting conversation between two people waiting in line with their children.

They were either talking in code or they had very strange lives. He knew the CIA analysts would have a field day with this. NSA too if they got a hold of it.

It would go in his daily report, but he would also make a copy for himself. He didn’t trust the CIA to have the country’s best interest in mind, right now. He wanted to make sure that whatever the message was, wasn’t something that would prove the corruption or even add to it.

After his shift as Santa, Kort hurried to the bar. He needed more than just a little alcohol to help him forget the holiday music. He was way early for the meet, but he didn’t care. 

The bar had decent food, so he’d just do dinner and alcohol and hope that McGee didn’t bring anymore bombs. Finding out his mother was a part of the scheme to get rid of him had been bad enough. Combined with the Santa outfit, all the kids, and the terrible and annoying Christmas music, he was just done.

He was starting to contemplate ways that he could torture the kids that came to sit on Santa’s lap that they wouldn’t be able to trace to him. He’d had a baby throw up on him. Another, poop into it’s diaper while in his lap.

If he didn’t know what he did he would complain to his CIA contact and try to get taken off the mission. However, based on what was going on he knew there was no point in that. Maybe he could complain to McGee once he showed up.

Though, Kort wasn’t sure what that would do either. It might make him feel a bit better, but it really wouldn’t change anything. Kort blinked in surprise when a green eyed beauty made her way over to him.

He stared in shock when he realized it was McGee. “What’s with the outfit?”

McGee sighed. “Tony’s idea of a joke. He claimed it would make us less obvious and easy to track.”

Kort chuckled. “Nice outfit.”

McGee glared. Abby had insisted that he looked adorable, but he mostly felt he looked like a freak in this outfit. Kort’s reaction really hadn’t changed his opinion on how he looked right now, either.

”You want to dance?” Kort had no idea why he asked that. He wasn’t overly fond of dancing, but it just came out of his mouth. 

“Sure. It should add to our disguise, right?”

Kort hummed in agreement. He’d had plenty of dance lessons, but rarely danced unless for a mission. All CIA operatives were required to take enough dance classes to be able to smoothly mingle at high brow parties with the rich muckety mucks that all had private dance tutors. 

Needless to say, Kort had excelled in those course and picked them up very quickly. What surprised him, though, was how light on his feet and graceful McGee was. The guy was wearing heels.

Granted they weren’t high heels and any CIA agent wearing those could easily kill at least 20 people without breaking into a sweat, but NCIS didn’t exactly require that skill, so Kort hadn’t expected it of McGee. By the time the music ended, Kort was beginning to rethink his impressions of McGee. The man may have a very geeky exterior, but there was definitely more to him than met the eye.

Even if he was trying to pass his current outfit off as Tony’s fault, the fact was the man could move in it. Kort doubted that most people in the bar even realized McGee was actually a man. He could see the jealous looks that had been sent their way during the dancing and he couldn’t help a smug little smirk as he led McGee back to their table.

They both needed a bit of a break after that work out and started up a conversation that covered what the MCRT had found out about Kort’s mom. It was looking more and more like some serious conspiracies were going on. McGee wanted Kort to provide his DNA, so that they could see if the DNA for their murder had a familial tie to him.

Kort was starting to trust NCIS, but that was a bit much for him. He thought it likely that his mother was the murderer on behalf of Brisco who had the motive, but in his mind that was tempting fate too much and NCIS might try to set him up to take the fall for the murder. He still didn’t entirely trust their motives for working with him.

McGee could sense his unease and quickly backpedaled letting him know that it had just been an idea McGee had had and that he didn’t need to provide his DNA.

Kort thought about it and replied, “I can do you one better. I can get you my mother’s DNA.”

“Nothing illegal, though. We need to be able to use it as evidence in court, remember.”

Kort nodded. “Don’t worry. It will be completely by the book.”

”Well I better get going.” McGee gestured to the door.

Kort nodded.

McGee turned around to leave, paused and then turned back and gave Kort a quick kiss on the lips before quickly heading out the door. 

Kort brought a hand up to his lips and touched them as if to try and figure out if McGee had really just kissed him. He stared after McGee in bemusement for a few seconds before shaking his head and heading home himself. That was definitely an unexpected twist to the night.

He really needed to get to the bottom of McGee’s feelings for him, but first they better get this corruption dealt with. Even if he were willing to explore a relationship with McGee, starting it during the middle of an op would be stupid. Also, trying to hold a relationship and be a CIA operative was just asking for trouble. 

He really did need to figure out what his plan for leaving the CIA was. He knew it could be done without a hit being put out on you, but it wasn’t easy. Still based on what was going on right now, he didn’t think he wanted to be in the CIA any longer. 

Not unless the people running it changed, which seemed unlikely even if NCIS did manage to arrest a number of them in relation to their Brisco case. He doubted that NCIS could manage to take down the whole privileged section of the CIA in one fell swoop and the ones that remained would work even harder to make sure they didn’t get taken down.

Fortunately, tomorrow was actually a day off for Travis Dennis and he didn’t have to play Santa. Instead Kort planned how he would get his mother’s DNA for NCIS. It would be relatively easy to call her up and suggest meeting for drinks. 

Even though they weren’t on the best of terms, she wouldn’t be able to refuse that. He could then easily use tape to lift her fingerprints off of her glass when she left for the restroom and slip it into an evidence bag. Getting an actual sample of her DNA would be more difficult. 

Most of the ways to extract DNA were rather obvious and he didn’t want her to be aware that he’d taken her DNA. That would make her even more suspicious of the meeting and probably move up any assassination timeline. Still, he would figure something out.

He was one of the better CIA agents. He could totally do this. First, he called his mother to setup the meeting. 

He offered his condolences in father’s death as the excuse as to why he was calling. She didn’t believe him, but it was the kind of thing that was expected in their family. Fake condolences were practically a necessity.

He had to be careful to not push for a meeting too quickly. It had to seem natural or she would decline. He didn’t want to trigger her spy senses, just her motherly senses. Finally, he suggested meeting at a restaurant to catch up. 

It was another of those fake niceties things that their family did. There was a whole list of rituals that must be followed for each situation written down somewhere Kort was convinced. Still he sighed with relief after he secured a meeting and was finally able to get off the phone with her.

While he was working on figuring out the easiest way to get her DNA in addition to her fingerprints, McGee called him to invite him along for a double date with Bishop and Tony. Garrett couldn’t help wondering why those two were the double date. He wouldn’t have pegged Bishop and Tony as daters.

They seemed more like siblings or mentor and student. In fact, there was a distinct lack of unresolved sexual tension. Now, DiNozzo and Gibbs he could totally see as a double date.

Regardless, Kort agreed to the double date. It struck him again, how odd this all was. Usually it was like pulling teeth to get NCIS to share information and here they were practically handing it over unbidden. 

He really didn’t understand what was going on here. He prodded his contacts again for information on what was happening at NCIS. The response he got, shocked him. Gibbs was planning to retire?

Kort had thought the man would go to his grave as a NCIS agent. That kind of explained the odd behavior, though, it still didn’t explain how well McGee was doing with pretending to be in a relationship. Maybe he could find out more when they met up with Tony and Bishop tonight.

The other thing he found out was that Brisco was very close to actually escaping the prison he was currently housed in. Kort immediately sent that information to McGee via the secure server. NCIS should definitely have someone look into that. 

Things would get a lot more difficult if Brisco escaped. Brisco knew enough people that even from jail he could affect things. It would be ten times worse if he were on the loose.

Of course, Kort would be more than happy to pay Brisco a visit and make sure he never talked again, but given McGee’s keep it legal request he doubted the MCRT would go for that. So he would let them deal with it. He had a bad feeling that if he burned the bridge with the MCRT this time that it would be the end for him.

He started fooling around with the possible coded message he’d overheard, seeing if there was anything of worth in it or if it was just two people with really strange lives. Just as he was about to leave for the meeting with his mother, he figured it out. He stared in consternation as he realized that the coded message went over exactly how Brisco would escape from jail.

With a sigh, he forwarded that to the MCRT as well. The meeting with his mother couldn’t have gone better. He easily got her fingerprints and her DNA. They were in evidence bags for the MCRT.

Of course, he’d apparently triggered her spy senses and she now held him at gunpoint which was going to make him late for his double date. He didn’t say that though. He was contemplating his options when Brisco joined them.

Fuck. Was this the end of him? Kort eyed Brisco and his mother warily.

Brisco greeted her with a kiss. Kort suppressed a shudder. He still didn’t see how those two could be in a relationship together.

Brisco turned to Kort, “You’ve been a thorn in our sides just like your father for too many years. It’s time to do something about it.”

Kort lifted a single eyebrow, “Isn’t killing your entire family for a man a bit much, mom?”

If he hoped for more of an explanation, he was disappointed. She only raised the gun so that it pointed at his heart and released the safety. Bang!


	5. The End of One Life and the Start of Another

Brisco went down. Another shot rang out and his mother went down too. Kort turned to find McGee and the rest of the MCRT behind him.

“I didn’t need the help, but thanks.” 

McGee scurried over to Kort. “Are you ok?”

Kort looked at him in confusion, “Why do you care?”

“Haven’t you figured out that I have a crush on you?” McGee frowned as he started touching Kort, looking for any hidden injuries. 

Kort shook his head, “No. I thought you were just playing an undercover role for this op.”

“I’m not that good of an actor.”

Kort handed the evidence to McGee. “Here this should give you my mother’s DNA. You can match it to your crime scene.”

McGee took the evidence bags and handed them off to Bishop before pulling Kort into a deep kiss after having determined that the guy didn’t appear to need medical attention. Kort sputtered. He really didn’t know what was up with McGee.

For someone who had always seemed shy and introverted, the guy was practically demanding his submission with this kiss. Kort didn’t roll over for just anyone, but he found it really hard to care that McGee was controlling the kiss. Which is not to say that he was just giving in and letting McGee’s tongue do whatever it wanted, no he was giving as good as he got in return.

“What happened to the shy geek I used to run into?” Kort coughed out as he tried to catch his breath after that kiss.

“Oh, I still have an inner geek, don’t worry.”

“This is what comes of LARPing more confident characters and working to bring up his skills as SFA now that Gibbs is retiring.” Tony interrupted patting McGee on the back.

“Tony!” McGee glared, a bright red suffusing his face as he blushed. He hadn’t intended to reveal all of that to Kort, yet.

Kort chuckled and followed McGee and Tony back to NCIS as they bickered good naturedly. Gibbs and Bishop had taken Brisco and Kort’s mother to the hospital to get checked out and would meet them back at NCIS if Brisco and Kort’s mother were healthy enough to be released. If not, Gibbs would call and they’d head over to the hospital.

The shots were well placed though and while painful, weren’t life threatening. The doctors quickly patched the two suspects up and sent them on their way. Gibbs and Bishop then took them back to headquarters for questioning. 

The suspects were placed in separate interrogation rooms before Bishop and Gibbs joined the rest of them in the bullpen. Tony and Gibbs exchanged looks before Tony waved his hand and offered, “Go ahead. It’s your last case, after all. You should do the interrogations.”

Gibbs nodded his head and moved to the interrogation room containing Brisco while everyone else moved to the viewing room. Kort knew he needed to have a conversation with McGee about the man’s feelings for him. Before he could even contemplate how to start that conversation, his brain ground to a halt as DiNozzo offered him a job on the team.

“What?”

”I’ve already talked it over with the director and if you want, you can have a place on our team. With Gibbs retiring we need a fourth and your skills would be very useful.”

“Why?”

“You don’t seem interested in playing the CIA game anymore. Thought perhaps you would be interested in a job where you could be yourself and stay on the legal side of the line.”

“I’ll have to think about it.”

“Of course.” Tony turned his attention back to the interrogation.

Kort’s mind was spinning. He’d knew the MCRT had more motive than McGee’s crush and the case involving Brisco and his mom, but he never expected this. It was amusing how fast Brisco turned on his mother, quickly claiming that everything was her fault.

Of course, the MCRT had collected enough evidence of his involvement that there was no way he was escaping even more jail time. This time, he wouldn’t be placed in a prison that he could escape from so easily. Plus, most of his connections would be going down with him.

Even more revealing than Brisco’s interrogation was the interrogation of his mother. Apparently, both his mother and father had been spies and their relationship was largely blackmailing each other because of it. His father had made a deal that Garrett would be kicked out of the house in exchange for the CIA not killing Garrett no matter how bad he was as an agent.

As long as his father was alive, he’d been protected. That was why they hadn’t killed him when they killed Trent Kort. He still disliked his father, but he could at least see that the man wasn’t all bad as far as fathers go.

Brisco and his mother had been in an off again on again relationship since before he was born. He actually wasn’t sure if he had his father’s DNA or Brisco’s DNA, which was more than a little disturbing to him. Apparently, things had been getting even worse between his father and his mother and she’d finally gotten tired of being married to him.

Of course, instead of getting a divorce like most normal people would, she’d hired Brisco to kill him instead. The CIA had even paid for half of the hit as they realized with his father gone that they could actually kill Kort like they’d been wanting to do for a while. Garrett shook his head. 

With that confession, they would be ages weeding out who in the CIA was or wasn’t involved. Needless to say Kort put in his transfer papers from the CIA to NCIS immediately. He didn’t want to be stuck at the CIA while that investigation was going on. 

He was mostly in the clear since the plot was against him, but he was sure there would be some things that he was ordered to do that weren’t actually legal CIA missions that would come up during the investigation. He’d had more missions given to him by Brisco than he preferred to admit. Plus, he apparently had the possibility of a new relationship to pursue.

He couldn’t wait to find out just how much of McGee’s geekiness actually existed and what other hidden gems about the man he could discover. He knew he’d be taking the role of probie on the MCRT and would probably be in for some hazing, but he couldn’t say he was worried about it. After the CIA anything the MCRT tossed his way as far as hazing was concerned would be easy to handle.

He was excited to start his new life as Garrett Kort and couldn’t wait to find out what it had in store for him, starting with the double date McGee had promised him that his mother had screwed up. When he asked about it, he wasn’t surprised to find out that Bishop and Tony were backing out now that the case was closed. It had been pretty obvious that relationship was just a cover. 

McGee, however, was quite willing to take Kort out. It was the first of many dates they would have. Kort knew there was a rule against dating coworkers, but with Gibbs retired and no one else seeming to care, he didn’t let it bother him as he explored the finer things in life with McGee.

**Author's Note:**

> It's 2019 now and I have closed my 2018 Prompt collection, but fear not my 2019 Prompt Collection is now open [here](https://archiveofourown.org/collections/cutsycat_NCIS_Prompts_2019/profile). Just click the sign up link. ;) It will remain open until the beginning of 2020. I'm hoping to complete all the 2019 prompts by the end of 2020. Do not fear I have not forgotten about the 2018 prompts and will continue working through them. It's just easier for me to not get overwhelmed if I keep the prompts separated by the year they were given to me.
> 
> If you are not an ao3 member, you can prompt me [here](http://cutsycat.livejournal.com/50701.html). Please follow the same rules as are listed in the above link. However, because this is a handmade prompt form(that thinks it's a poll), it is considerably more limited than what ao3 provides, so please use the ao3 form if you're an ao3 member. Please note the name option is for a name that I can say this is for so that you know it's for you. Since this is for non ao3 members it won't be true gifts, but you will be mentioned in the notes. Please note if you have already voted in the poll and would like to request more stories you can just add a comment to the poll. Please include the name along with the prompt, so that I can appropriately gift the prompt to you.
> 
> For any authors that want to chat and/or are looking for a place where they can toss plot ideas around and get input from people, you can come join my discord server that is specifically geared towards writing/encouraging people to write and authors. The invite link is [here](https://discord.gg/HFvwpCq). If you're not an author, but want to chat with me about writing/stories or anything else you are welcome to join. I reserve the right to boot you from my server if all you do is pester me about updates, however. *grin* Really anyone who wants to talk about writing and/or plot ideas for various stories is welcome to join. 
> 
> I do not currently have a discord dedicated to my stories. If anyone would be interested in joining a group chat server that is focused on my stories please comment below. Also, if you would like such a thing what kind of things would you like to know about? Please share those with me.
> 
> Also, Drakonyashka has translated a couple of my works into Russian. [Tutelage](http://archiveofourown.org/works/12378780) and [Imbue](http://archiveofourown.org/works/12378840). Go support them. 


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